Santa Cruz

Largest department in Bolivia, in the east of the country; area 382,320 sq km/147,613 sq mi; population (2000 est) 1,812,522. The capital is Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Together with the departments of Pando and Beni, Santa Cruz forms the eastern tropical lowland region of Bolivia, which comprises about 70% of the country's total area. Agriculturally, Santa Cruz is very diverse; its fertile soil supports the cultivation of sugar cane, soya, rice, coffee, and citrus fruits. Oil and natural gas deposits are extensively mined, and there is also mining of iron-ore and magnesium.

Santa Cruz consists of vast plains watered by innumerable slow-moving rivers and streams: the Río Grande, Río Piray, Río San Martín, and Río Paragua, of which only short sections are navigable. Owing to its isolation, the department (the largest in Bolivia) was left undeveloped for a long time; however, its mineral resources (the nation's richest) are now being rapidly exploited. A 250 km/155 mi-long road now joins the capital with Cochabamba. A railway line runs east 648 km/403 mi to the Brazilian town of Corumbá, connecting the Bolivian and Brazilian systems, while another runs south 530 km/329 mi to Yacuiba, where it joins with the Argentine system.

There are a number of restored 17th- and 18th-century Jesuit missions in the department, to the east of the capital. In recent times, Japanese settlers and Mennonite settlers from the USA and Canada have established farming communities in the region.